WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 158: And We Ended Up Outside
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“Representative Mi-rae! It is you, right? Did you move over there?”
Hyeon Je-won pressed close to the door.
They seemed unable to bring themself to place a hand over mine while I gripped the doorknob.
“I think so.”
“Seon Yu-han, look! Representative Mi-rae isn't just repeating the answers from the conference room. They're saying completely different things!”
“...Even though not a single sentence can go over seven characters?”
“That can't be helped. It's this body's limit.”
“But you can continue speaking! Then it isn't much of a restriction! Ah, does each sentence have to make sense on its own?”
I looked back and forth between Hyeon Je-won's shining eyes and the firmly shut door, then finally raised my head and stared at the ceiling.
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“And it isn't automatic. Representative Mi-rae is personally matching the character count as they speak?”
“Yeah. It's pretty interesting.”
I silently swallowed a sigh and weighed the possibilities.
The possibility that this really was Yu Mi-rae. The possibility that it was something that had eaten Yu Mi-rae. The possibility that it was friendly. The possibility that it was dangerous...
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped me, and the strength left my hand on the doorknob.
“You're finally opening it.”
It wasn't because my life was in danger.
Really.
It was entirely, purely because I was disgusted.
“Don't worry too much.”
More than anyone, I wanted this to be the real Yu Mi-rae.
I wanted it most of all.
“I'm still me.”
I didn't want to see it.
A monster wearing the outer shell of someone I knew...
“Just turned around.”
This was why a corpse had to remain.
That was the only way I could feel even a little relieved.
“Is anything wrong with your body, Representative Mi-rae?”
“Left and right got flipped.”
“...Yes. It does look that way, Representative.”
“That isn't what I mean!”
At least that temper was unchanged.
The reversed Yu Mi-rae raised their ringed right hand.
“I just raised my left hand.”
Then they stepped forward with their right foot.
“That was my left foot.”
“Ah!”
Hyeon Je-won's eyes widened with interest.
“The central nervous system is functioning properly, but the body's visible orientation has been reversed!”
“Yeah. The controls are reversed.”
“So that's why you stumbled and fell in the interview room! Because you were confused!”
The reversed Yu Mi-rae nodded.
“...Wait. Then if you want to go right, you have to move left?”
“Yeah. Doesn't it feel like a game?”
I quietly watched that perfectly symmetrical smile, then looked away.
That wasn't important.
“Let's return to the Audit Office first. Another audit report has probably come out.”
As expected, a sheet of A4 paper had printed from the multifunction printer.
―――――――――――――――
Audit Subject｜Yu Mi-rae
Noncompliance｜-
Action Result｜Promotion
―――――――――――――――
“It says I got promoted.”
The co-representative of Uiwi Guild snickered.
“Then will it work the same way for Seon Yu-han and me?”
“I don't know. Getting out of the main conference room...”
I glanced at the reversed Yu Mi-rae and carefully chose my words.
“This can't be the only outcome. If there are promotions and reassignments, there must be other results too. Being placed on standby or demoted, perhaps. Those might even be better. If a promotion takes this form...”
“What's wrong with this?”
Yu Mi-rae abruptly turned toward me.
“...You aren't seriously asking because you don't know, are you?”
Honestly, I didn't understand how they could move so naturally.
How could they turn their head straight toward me like that?
Even if they could see that I stood on their left, they should have needed to turn their head right.
Other than when they first stumbled in the interview room, Yu Mi-rae hadn't hesitated once.
They had complete control over their body.
It was chilling.
To be able to turn their whole world upside down in an instant, and control themself.
To ignore instinct and operate their body mechanically.
It was sad.
“Who wants to go next?”
“I, I want to go...!”
“Are you sure? I can go first.”
“No, I can't let you...!”
Couldn't let me?
I knew Hyeon Je-won's volunteering wasn't some spirit of sacrifice for whoever came next.
“I want to try first because I don't know what'll happen to me if Seon Yu-han dies, and, um, now we know there's a way not to die, like Representative Mi-rae, so I feel a little safer too...”
I liked that guileless coldness.
The belief that the person they admired would return alive, and the judgment that their return meant Hyeon Je-won could risk danger with greater peace of mind, could coexist.
“All right. Then please be careful.”
“Yes...!”
As always, the researcher gave an awkward farewell without properly meeting my eyes and left the Audit Office.
“You like that kid, don't you?”
Yu Mi-rae spoke around the time Hyeon Je-won must have turned the second corner.
“...Isn't Hyeon Je-won older than me?”
“You said we were your kids too.”
I shut my mouth.
This was a fight I couldn't win.
“Ah, Hyeon Je-won has gone in.”
Fortunately, the main conference room screen changed. I pointed at the monitor, and Yu Mi-rae played along. Generously.
After Hyeon Je-won was seated and bound to the chair, the meeting began.
【What is your name?】
「I'm Hyeon Je-won!」
【How old is Hyeon Je-won?】
「I'm thirty-two!」
As they answered, they bent their fingers one by one against their knee, apparently counting characters.
【How many people are in your family?】
Rrrroll... I could almost hear their eyeballs rolling from here.
「Four, including me...」
“A younger brother, four years younger.”
Yu Mi-rae spoke with laughter in their voice.
“They're normal. What a relief.”
It was a joke only people who were unfortunately abnormal could make.
I lowered the corner of my mouth and thought perhaps seven characters were enough for a sentence after all.
【What is your hobby?】
「I collect disks!」
【What kind of disks?】
The researcher's face brightened, and the fingers that had been counting characters stopped.
I had a bad feeling.
「Floppy disks! The 3.5-inch ones are palm-sized and come in all sorts of colors, so when you collect them, they look like a rainbow. The 8-inch ones are big, perfect squares with uncreased corners, so cool... Agh...」
Perhaps the mirror cords had tightened further around Hyeon Je-won. Their already pale face went even whiter.
“That doesn't fit the meeting.”
It really didn't.
【What food do you like?】
「Sour gummies...! There was a product I used to love, but it was discontinued, so I searched for ones with the closest possible flavor, and... ngh...」
The moment a question related to their interests came up, Hyeon Je-won poured out words.
As if they couldn't control themself.
It was literally a problem at the neural level.
【What music do you like?】
「Of Maurice Ravel's pieces, I like Piano Concerto for the Left Hand the most... Agh...」
They didn't even make it to the question about an ideal world.
【I can't listen to this.】
With those words, the main conference room monitor turned off.
“It lets you get away with it twice.”
“...Yes. It seems that way.”
Click.
When the screen turned back on, Hyeon Je-won was no longer there.
I had probably disappeared like that last time too.
I hadn't known exactly what happened after someone faced the mirrors directly, but it seemed they vanished like that.
Perhaps they entered the mirror...
In any case, unlike Yu Mi-rae, Hyeon Je-won's mirror image sitting in Interview Room C was quiet. It didn't seem their memories had transferred.
Shhk, shhk.
Another audit report printed from the multifunction printer.
―――――――――――――――
Audit Subject｜Hyeon Je-won
Noncompliance｜Uncooperative behavior, such as failing to focus on this audit, ignoring the auditor, and repeatedly giving unreasonable answers (e.g., “F l o p p y d i s k s! Three-point-five-inch ones are palm-sized...”)
Action Result｜Reassignment
―――――――――――――――
“Looks like taking them out wasn't a good idea.”
The sentence was missing both its beginning and end, but it wasn't hard to understand.
I'd been thinking something similar.
“Out of my own ‘home’?”
“They would've been fine.”
They meant that even if Hyeon Je-won had been locked in that “home,” they would've stayed safe. Unlike Yu Mi-rae.
“...There won't be another time. I'll leave them in the Legal Affairs Office anyway.”
“Yeah. Have a good audit.”
“I'll be back.”
There was no need for cumbersome courtesies.
I walked through the narrow, long passage leading out of the Audit Office and opened the door to the main conference room.
【We'll begin the meeting.】
The familiar questions gradually followed, and I answered without issue.
【What is your ideal world?】
This was probably one of the most important questions in the meeting.
“...”
I opened my mouth and paused briefly.
Last time, I'd said I didn't know, and the mirror cords had tightened around me.
But I couldn't answer, as Yu Mi-rae had, that I'd already arrived there.
That would be a lie.
Remembering the angle I'd seen on the Audit Office monitor, I fixed my eyes on empty air.
“A place where everything has been resolved.”
The moment I answered, a clear sound came from the jade mirror at the seat of honor, as though it had been waiting.
【Just come over here.】
“I don't think so.”
My clothes tore, and threads snapped.
【There are no problems here.】
“Don't lie.”
My skin split, and my collar grew wet.
【Everything is resolved here.】
I faced the mirror directly in front of me.
“It doesn't look that way.”
The version of me in the world with left and right reversed smiled at me.
Even a mocking smile was still a smile.
Then the mirrors fell silent before speaking all at once.
【Who invited that?】
【I don't like that thing!】
【It isn't disqualified.】
【It isn't qualified either.】
【Why not give it a try?】
【It won't work because of the contradiction.】
【We'll break.】
They said all sorts of things with a person right in front of them. In voices as clear as jade beads.
【I don't want to break!】
【We cannot break.】
【That side broke.】
【We must protect it.】
【We have to protect it.】
【The ideal beyond us.】
【For the ideal world.】
The strange meeting of mirrors, which had been babbling nonsense, suddenly reached its conclusion, the mirrors pointlessly solemn among themselves.
Shhk, shrrk.
The mirror cords binding my body slowly loosened.
I sat there blankly for a moment before asking.
“Am I allowed to leave?”
No answer came.
So I simply stood up.
Thud.
Just as I was about to open the door and leave.
【The question was wrong.】
A voice too clear to ignore stopped me.
I looked at the jade mirror in the center seat of honor.
“Then what's the right one?”
【‘Can I get out?’】
Crack!
Thunk!
Crash, bang!
I caught my breath, put down the chair, and left the conference room.
“Will I break too?”
That was what Yu Mi-rae asked the moment I returned to the Audit Office.
“...It doesn't matter, does it? It doesn't seem like human strength can break them anyway.”
Without even looking at the main conference room monitor, I immediately checked the audit report.
―――――――――――――――
Audit Subject｜Seon Yu-han
Noncompliance｜Remarks challenging the integrity and coherence of this audit (e.g., “D o n ' t l i e,” “D o e s n ' t l o o k l i k e i t”)
＊The objection was found to be valid.
Action Result｜Placed on standby
―――――――――――――――
Placed on standby...
I didn't know whether the others would be able to get out this way too.
I'd gotten out through a conversation about an ideal world, but everyone's ideal world was different.
There was no knowing how those conversations would go.
I thought of Yun Geon-min and Kim Hee-sook, who would be waiting below for their sentences to end, then shook my head.
If the exit wasn't up here but down below, there was no need to bring them all the way here.
In the end, the problem was that I didn't know where the exit was.
That was the only problem with the Labyrinth. Always.
How to save someone was something to worry about after finding the first floor.
You couldn't prepare a path without knowing which direction the destination lay...
Ah.
I really had been greedy. Without realizing it. Letting my heart rush ahead.
Picking up companions for no reason when I didn't even know where the exit was...
“...Let's go out first.”
Yu Mi-rae and I left the Audit Office and climbed the emergency staircase.
Clank.
When I opened the door, I saw...
31. The pur pose of Meeting and Audit is the same. Do not be taken in by them.
A dim early evening sky.
Buildings rising in clusters.
A distant mountain ridge.
“Huh? This is our rooftop.”
This was the rooftop.
The top floor of Jaelae Building.
Footnotes:
Yu Mi-rae's Korean remarks after crossing over are each limited to seven Hangul blocks, a constraint that cannot be reproduced consistently in English.
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